TEEN TITANS (1971-1973)

This weekend’s light-hearted and escapist superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog takes a look at a particular arc of stories from DC’s original Teen Titans series.

TEEN TITANS Vol 1 #32 (Apr 1971)

Title: A Mystical Realm … A World Gone Mad

Teen Titans Roster: Robin, Kid Flash, Wonder Girl, Speedy (should be Red Arrow), Lilith (later called Omen) and Malachi Duncan (their black member who later became Hornblower and then the new Guardian)

Villain: Jupiterius

Synopsis: Mr. Loren Jupiter, the eccentric billionaire who finances the Teen Titans, tries to experiment with time travel. He accidentally sends Mal back to prehistoric times and Kid Flash is sent back to retrieve him. The two run afoul of a teen caveman called Gnarrk (soon to join the team) and accidentally cause his death.

When they return to their own time period it turns out that Gnarrk’s death caused a butterfly effect and the “present” is now ruled by an evil version of Loren Jupiter called Jupiterius. He rules the world with Lilith’s (on stairs) sorcery, monsters and the evil counterparts of what would have been the other Teen Titans.   

TEEN TITANS Vol 1 #33 (Jun 1971)

Title: Less Than Human

Villains: Jupiterius and gangsters

Synopsis: Kid Flash and Malachi fight their way free of the twisted 1971 and return to prehistoric times. They prevent Gnarrk’s death in the past, but he manages to tag along with them back to 1971. I don’t know why that doesn’t mean the present is still a twisted mess ruled by Jupiterius but everything is back to normal. (You know comic book writing.)

Our heroes accept the teen caveman Gnarrk onto the team and begin educating him about the 20th Century and how to speak English. He and Lilith begin to fall in love with each other during those months. In the end, the thoroughly modern Gnarrk helps the team defeat gangsters and the corrupt city councilman they control.   

NOTE: Gnarrk does not look like that drawing on the cover.

TEEN TITANS Vol 1 #34 (Aug 1971)

Title: The Demon of Dog Island

Villain: Magda Drachwyck

Synopsis: Donna Troy, the secret identity of Wonder Girl, gets a job looking after an elderly woman named Magda on Dog Island. Lilith’s powers let her realize that Magda is really a witch who is slowly possessing Wonder Girl and making her terrorize the island’s inhabitants, who label her “the demon of Dog Island.”

Robin, Kid Flash, Speedy, Mal, Lilith and Gnarrk go to the island and clash with the possessed Wonder Girl and the witch Magda. The Teen Titans win and Magda is defeated.

TEEN TITANS Vol 1 #35 (Oct 1971)

Title: Intruder of the Forbidden Crypt

Villain: The Gargoyle

Synopsis: The Teen Titans are on hand in Verona, Italy for the opening of Loren Jupiter’s new castle laboratory. Lilith falls prey to a mental influence convincing her she is Juliet Capulet and that a modern-day man from a family named de la Loggia is Romeo Montague, leading to an odd ritual in the castle’s crypt.

The Teen Titans’s old supervillain foe the Gargoyle has escaped from his prison in Limbo and wants revenge on our heroes. Mal gets to shine as he manages to exile the Gargoyle back to Limbo. (Personally, I think since Lilith was possessed by Juliet that Gnarrk should have been the one to get possessed by Romeo since they’re a couple.)

TEEN TITANS Vol 1 #36 (Dec 1971)

Title: The Tomb be Their Destiny

Villain: Calibano

Synopsis: It turns out the secret villain behind the Verona activity is Calibano (who is named in honor of Caliban from Shakespeare’s Tempest but looks like a hunchback instead) This story offers up kind of a William Shakespeare Universe in which all the characters from all of his plays were real, I guess.

Things are distorted, however, as “Calibano” is an ancestor of the de la Loggias and had the hots for Juliet instead of Miranda. Go figure. Anyway, Calibano dies, Lilith is saved and the team finishes dedicating Mr. Jupiter’s new laboratory.

A backup story titled The Teenager from Nowhere is set years earlier when Lilith was only 13 and her powers let her learn that she was adopted and made her curious about her real parents. 

TEEN TITANS Vol 1 #37 (Feb 1972)

Title: Scourge of the Skeletal Riders

Villains: The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

Synopsis: The Teen Titans are in the fictional nation of Ranistan, where they clash with figures claiming to be the actual Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse from the Bible. This story’s “roster” for the Four Horsemen is: Famine, Plague, War and Death.

Our heroes meet up with their old friend, film journalist Grady Dawes, who is in Ranistan getting footage of the chaos. It turns out these Horsemen are creations of an extra-dimensional being called the Adjudicator (a supernatural version of Marvel’s Stranger). They are driven off but Grady Dawes dies at the hands of Death.

TEEN TITANS Vol 1 #38 (Apr 1972)

Title: Through These Doors Pass the Bravest Titans of Them All

Villains: Hallucinations caused by Lilith

Synopsis: In the present day, Lilith senses internal traumas that her fellow Teen Titans are still haunted by. Without their permission, she takes it upon herself to make them experience hallucinatory versions of those traumatic events so that this time the heroes can overcome them. Bizarrely, the others aren’t angry with her for doing it.

A backup story titled Nameless, Wander I depicts the much younger Lilith on her quest to find her real parents. A villainous man and woman who run a carnival pretend to be her parents so they can exploit Lilith’s powers for their own ends. She wises up and defeats the pair.

TEEN TITANS Vol 1 #39 (Jun 1972)

Title: Awake, Barbaric Titan

Villains: Lost Aztec Tribe

Synopsis: When Gnarrk’s secret identity is blown at his Forbes Foundation job he gets fired. He and the rest of the Teen Titans travel west to observe a geological survey but must save a town from being looted by gas-masked villains who have used nerve gas to knock out the citizens.

That leads to them being captured by a lost Aztec tribe hiding in caves in the Grand Canyon. The Aztecs enthrall Gnarrk (see cover) and use him against his teammates. He snaps out of it when his beloved Lilith is in danger and helps the team defeat the Aztecs, then promises to keep their existence a secret.

TEEN TITANS Vol 1 #40 (Aug 1972)

Title: Spawn of the Sinister Sea

Villain: Black Moray and Nirka 

Synopsis: The Teen Titans are in Scotland, where they thwart villains who are using a fake Loch Ness Monster to loot and plunder. In the aftermath, Robin and Malachi are abducted by an oddly costumed and hypnotized Aqualad, a former Teen Titans team member.

It turns out that Aqualad has been recruited by the enchantress Nirka, daughter of Black Moray, whose castle arises from the waters once per century. His daughter Nirka lures people to the castle and when the castle sinks for another 100 years anyone inside becomes part of the immortal sorcerer Black Moray’s army forever.   

The Titans free Aqualad, Robin and Malachi and get out of the castle before it sinks for another century.

TEEN TITANS Vol 1 #41 (Oct 1972)

Title: What Lies in Litchburg Graveyard?

Villains: The Ghost of Ahab Barstow and his hounds

Synopsis: The Teen Titans accompany their financier Loren Jupiter to the deathbed of his elderly adoptive black aunt Hattie Jackson. Mal reminds Hattie of her ancestor who was a slave in the pre-Civil War south. Before she dies she gives him the gift of a doll which has been in the family for a very long time.

Having the doll draws the unstoppable ghosts of slave hunter Ahab Barstow and his hounds to come and kill Malachi. He and his fellow Teen Titans are unable to stop the ghosts, so the protective doll comes to life, grows to giant size and destroys Ahab and the hounds.

A backup story titled My Brother’s Keeper depicts the much younger Lilith reuniting a lost boy with his parents while she continues her quest to find her own.

TEEN TITANS Vol 1 #42 (Dec 1972)

Title: Slaves of the Emperor Bug

Villain: Lord Beetle

Synopsis: Wonder Girl comes into possession of an ancient, golden beetle-shaped brooch. Eventually the brooch comes to life and informs the Teen Titans that it is an ancient warrior from the Yucatan Peninsula who was trapped in this brooch form by an evil sorcerer he defeated.

The team travels to the peninsula to try curing the warrior and wind up battling several mystical monstrosities. In the end the ancient warrior is restored to human form but reveals his true nature – he is evil and wants to unleash a reign of terror. He is defeated and the world is saved.

TEEN TITANS Vol 1 #43 (Feb 1973)

Title: Inherit the Howling Night

Villains: Demons

Synopsis: An elderly man named Cyrus Manning is trapped by supernatural forces in his remote home along with his young grandson Davey Manning. Lilith and the rest of the Teen Titans arrive to try freeing him. They fail to overcome the demonic entities assaulting the house until the ghost of Cyrus’s wife reveals that Davey is himself a changeling impersonating the original Davey.

He is destroyed and the menace is over. In a comical coincidence, Cyrus Manning’s flashbacks reveal that one of his family members was named Peyton Manning. 

NOTE: It’s odd how the Teen Titans stories in this particular run focused on horror/ supernatural foes like the much later Justice League Dark would face.

FOR MY REVIEWS OF TEEN TITANS #44-53 CLICK HERE.